German Patent Application No. DE-A 32 44 290 describes a valve needle for an electromagnetically actuated valve which includes an armature section, a valve closing element section and a tubular valve sleeve section which connects the armature section to the valve closing element section. The individual sections constitute individual components which are produced separately from one another and only connected to one another using joining methods.
A valve needle for an electromagnetically actuated valve is also described in German Patent Application No. DE-A 40 08 675. The valve needle includes an armature section, a valve closing element section and a valve sleeve section which connects the armature section to the valve closing element section. The armature section is connected to one end of the valve sleeve section by means of a first weld joint and the valve closing element section is connected to the other end of the valve sleeve section by means of a second weld joint. Therefore, two welding operations are necessary to produce the valve needle, which makes the production of the valve needle relatively complex and expensive.
Furthermore, German Application No. DE-PS 42 30 376 describes how a valve needle for an electromagnetically actuated valve is manufactured from a single-component tubular actuation part, including an armature section and a valve sleeve section, by injection-molding and subsequent sintering according to the metal-injection-molding (MIM) method. Subsequently, the actuation part is connected to a valve closing element section by means of a weld joint. Here, a continuous inner longitudinal opening in which fuel can flow in the direction of the valve closing element section is provided in the armature section and valve sleeve section, the fuel then emerges from the valve sleeve section through lateral openings near to the valve closing element section. For the production of the valve needle with the so-called MIM method, slider tools are therefore necessary in order to form the lateral openings.